THE TENDENCIES OF THE AGE

Otago Witness, Issue 21, 11 October 1851, Page 4

THE TENDENCIES OF THE AGE

With reference to the religious and political agencies now at work in England, it is remarked that the greatest revolutions, like the kingdom of God, >( come not with observation." When systems and institutions hasten to decay, or hurry onward to their ruin, they maintain often, to outward appearance, all the aspects of strength and permanence. The world, the human mind, silently, almost unconsciously, prepare themselves for great changes. But soul does not call to soul. Brooding, perhaps, on the same thoughts, feeding upon the same intellectual pabulum, directing their convictions all, unconsciously, to the same conclusions, each thinker believes he thinks alone. No outward signs gave to thrones, principalities, and powers, the premonitory symptoms of a Protestant Reformation, which stole upon them like a thief in the night, although the thinkers of England had been silently preparing their speculations for it many years. The whole aspects of English society presented indications of iron stability of kingly rule up almost to the very hour when Cromwell called his Ironsides from the plough tail to " teach kings that they had a joint in their necks." All the French Revolutions took the ruling powers, even the ruled, by surprise. Catholic Emancipation appeared to be indefinitely postponed jtist Wore Wellington one day removed the Marquis of Wellesley from the Vice-Royalty of Ireland, for encouraging the expectation of it, and the next day conceded it, because of a sudden he discovered that it could not be prevented. The Reform Bill, of which Mr. Hume himself declared that "it took away his breath," broke upon the nation with all the suddenness of surprise; and when Peel came into power, in 1841, the reformed constituency returned an overwhelming majority in siippoit of the Corn Laws, and Protection was in the very height and glory of its power ; destined within a few months to find that public opinion, working silently and imperceptibly, in so far as regarded political appearances, had resolved upon the full and final adoption of the principles of Free Trade. The very same phenomena are even now at work. The voluntary support of Christian institutions is the principle most commonly identified with Dissent in popular apprehension. It is the practice sanctioned by the spirit of the Christian system, which condemns in every form violence to conscience ; it is the practice whose example was set by the apostolic churches in the purest' age of the Christian history, and continued until princes, for reasons of state policy, purchased the alliance of the priesthood by endowments and dignities : it is a principle whose efficiency has been demonstrated alike by the early experience of the Church, by the ecclesiastical history of the United States of America, by the prosperity of the Dissenting Churches of England and Wales, and by the splendid Christian liberality of the Free Church of Scotland. It is the principle most consistent with the habits and predilections of the British people, who have ever been accustomed to do for themselves what in other lands Governments have been in the habit of undertaJrirrgi M. Guizot, the distinguished! French statesman and author, expressed his admiration of the significant inscription which adorned the charities of England, " Supported by voluntary contributions." It may well "be an Englishman's boast. The relief of physical infirmities, the education of the common people, the supply of many a destitute district with thempan& of spiritual illuminatiun, are the graceful fruits of voluntaryism. In freer kmds. the triumphs have been yet more signal ; but crippled as its operations have been amongst us, it has done great things, whereof we are glad. We see its monuments in every street of our crowded towns, and in the modest chapel of the country hamlet. Taxed as. the Nonconformist communities have been for the support of an alien church, they can point to their chapel?,, their schools, and their colleges, as illustrations of what voluntaryism can do.

Chinese Wells. — In one province of China there are wells from which fire issues, which the inhabitants use for domestic purppses. It is said this fire is not very brilliant or transparent, but very hot, and is supposed to arise ftom the combustion of carbonated hydrogen. Wood. thrown into it would not burn ; and by introducing, bamboo tubes into them the flames may be conducted- almost wherever one wishes, and the food cooked by it.